Where is the game heading?

Find out how much John Quayle wants and put the money on the table to get him.

I don't mind if there are 12 or 14 teams in Super League but it must be backed up a clear, coherent vision of where the game is going. There will never be a pro RL team where I live, not while Ulster get 10k on average in the Rabo Pro 14 but please, please do not pull up the drawbridge and confine our great game to Lancashire, Yorkshire (and Cumbria).

Excellent post. I complete agree. I share the same thoughts as JD, Ckn et al about the game and the direction it is heading. Wood, Rimmer et al are not fit for purpose. The real issues in the game are staring the RFL and this current regime in the face and they are not doing anything about it other than coming up with cheap gimmicks which they hope will paper over the cracks developing for a short period. Barking mad.

On another note, Andy Capp, it is about time Australia's dropped their issue with the game in the UK over the SL war. It is 17/18 years ago now. If you have allowed your own clubs who moved across to Murdoch back into the fold, it is certainly time to let things go. We forgave the Germans faster about WWII... Get over it.

This part of my posts relates to why Aussies are not overly fussed on Test Matches, our memories are not that short, The English game left the Aussies to burn and the ARL was left to die what was hoped a quick death. Most Australians did not back the Murdoch Super League "Vision"

Find out how much John Quayle wants and put the money on the table to get him.

I don't mind if there are 12 or 14 teams in Super League but it must be backed up a clear, coherent vision of where the game is going. There will never be a pro RL team where I live, not while Ulster get 10k on average in the Rabo Pro 14 but please, please do not pull up the drawbridge and confine our great game to Lancashire, Yorkshire (and Cumbria).

the way these two are ruining the game it will only be a yorkshire competition, as that is all they appear to care about!!

"Why is Napoleon crying ?" said one sailor to the other, "poor ###### thinks he's being exiled to st helens" came the reply.

In answer to the original OP, RL in this country has no direction, no clear plan for growth, no strong leadership at RFL level and little media profile. In the next 5 years I believe the best we can hope from the current regime is to stay still. Now is the time to draw a line in the sand and appoint someone with the guts to stand up to the SL clubs who want the game run for their own benefit. An ideal candidate IMO would have been Jim Doyle, the Scotsman who turned NZRL around. He has now joined the NRL but could he be tempted over?

Totally agree about Jim Doyle. He was fantastic heading NZRL and would be just the person i'd pick to head the UK RFL. He's now got a good gig at the NRL ... but he could be tempted over ... but how?

Gave up on France? I vaguely remember us playing them last year in some sort of tournament, for which Australia and New Zealand apparently couldn't be bothered to turn up. We also played the Exiles in 2012.

A two bob English team going through the motions with France?

Why should Australia or NZ turn up?

There have been FAR more Test matches played in England than there has in OZ/NZ in the last two decades.

The Exiles concept tells France they are ###### and not a contest, rather play busted ###### imports than them.

How about building France up as a solid test nation?

How many English men have played for Catalans compared to the vast Ozzi imports?

How many SL Clubs have scouted French talent similar to the NRL Clubs do with the Kiwi up and comers?

NZ has one Club in the NRL the same as France does in the ESL, how many Kiwis play in the NRL compared to Frenchmen in English Clubs?

On the few Aussie forums I'm on the league fans down there seem to whinge no more or less about the state of the game and their administration as we do here, particularly throughout the Gallop era. A fair share of people don't have much good to say about the new guy Smith, either.

If whinging fans truly decided the success of a sport then the SL and NRL should be in the same boat, shouldn't they? Instead the Aussies are doing really well for all their whinging and negativity. Could it be because they run their sport properly?

That's because Aussies are gold-medal whingers (and I'm one - an Aussie, not a whinger !!!)

I thought Gallop overall did a fine job and so far I am really liking the look of Smith ... but then, maybe I'm not an average Aussie RL fan (for a start, I'm more interested in UK and world RL than I am in the NRL !)

That's because Aussies are gold-medal whingers (and I'm one - an Aussie, not a whinger !!!)

I thought Gallop overall did a fine job and so far I am really liking the look of Smith ... but then, maybe I'm not an average Aussie RL fan (for a start, I'm more interested in UK and world RL than I am in the NRL !)

No, an Aussie, born and bred. But I lived in the UK from 1990 to 1993, which is where my fascination with UK RL began. I am also a Francophile, thus I am also a very keen French RL fan.

And my team, North Sydney Bears - whom I followed all my life, and spent many great afternoons watching at the magnificent North Sydney Oval - was booted out of the NRL. You lose quite a bit of interest when that happens.

No, an Aussie, born and bred. But I lived in the UK from 1990 to 1993, which is where my fascination with UK RL began. I am also a Francophile, thus I am also a very keen French RL fan.

And my team, North Sydney Bears - whom I followed all my life, and spent many great afternoons watching at the magnificent North Sydney Oval - was booted out of the NRL. You lose quite a bit of interest when that happens.

I spent a lot of time at North Sydney Leagues Club, it was a great club.
Mark Graham is a legend.

This part of my posts relates to why Aussies are not overly fussed on Test Matches, our memories are not that short, The English game left the Aussies to burn and the ARL was left to die what was hoped a quick death. Most Australians did not back the Murdoch Super League "Vision"

But you welcome back clubs like Brisbane, Cronulla, Auckland etc who made the jump? The attitude you are still showing 17/18 years later is pretty pathetic conidering the condition the British game was in at the time. Get over yourself; mistakes are made and I genuinely mean we forgive people who've tried to kill us more quickly than you lot are with RL. Pathetic!

We have a great game andI believe it's the best spectator sport there is.

These announcements of the past few days are frustrating. Everything that will be brought in was rejected as a failure 2008. So why when all that's proposed is proven to have failed, and by the RFL own words and admission, why are we re-introducing them again from 2015?

Youth development is excellent, better than ever. So what will happen to that? Cellar dwellar clubs can't afford to have young players making mistakes (which they do) which could cost a game and two points.Those same clubs will bring over mature, battle hardened NRL at massive cost to avoid relegation.Perhaps a cost they really can't afford.

When we dumped relegation we had around 47-48% of SL players from overseas. No relegation for six years and it's down to around 17% now. When relegation is re- introduced that % of overseas players will probably go up.

One way to prevent it is to raise the minimum of "club trained" players. Now it's 8 c.t. in the squad 25. They need to improve that to 8 in the gameday 17. That way youth development will still remain a priority.

But you welcome back clubs like Brisbane, Cronulla, Auckland etc who made the jump? The attitude you are still showing 17/18 years later is pretty pathetic conidering the condition the British game was in at the time. Get over yourself; mistakes are made and I genuinely mean we forgive people who've tried to kill us more quickly than you lot are with RL. Pathetic!

No I do not welcome back Clubs like Brisbane or Cronulla etc... you are saying that not me.

If it was up to me and the majority that supported the ARL those Clubs could do their own thing and ###### off from our game.

You can forgive who ever you like that is your business, you can not tell me what I should think and who I should forgive can you?

If the British game at the time was so bad who's fault was that?

If the British game is in trouble now who's fault is that?

Its yours and your fellow fans and your Clubs management and RFL management.

Why is the game in England always a basketcase that jumps ship when it wants but should always be accepted back by the Aussies it tried to sell out?

Get your own House in order Mate before you dictate to others what they should think or accept.

We had that with Richard Lewis, and he did a great job, but every decision he made was lambasted by the usual loudmouths. Every step the game took forward was literally fought over.

You have an opinion, the above is your opinion.
Lewis was clueless who rode the wave of the housing boom and a labour governments wasteful use of taxpayers money. The going got tough, the easy wins disappeared and he was off into the coasy tearooms of Wimbledon
We have a forum containing many non producers who read well but dont know how to generate sales, they live in a little cocoon back slapping each other whilst spouting their personal sheeeite as fact as they draw their local authority wage/pension- my opinion of course
We don't need administrators we need ballsy sales people to sell our potentially great product for the right price by focussing on its strengths, sack all the pen pushers and ban them from here. Our strengths are tangible, lets not be ashamed of them because they are why people play the game in Hemel and Bristol etc Once we get the right income for the product we create choices but lets not put the cart before the horse and certainly understand we are not a Con or Yank, we have a much longer and prouder history that has shaped us to be what we are
We must make the elite Super, we must increase the FT player pool, we must increase income into the sport, we must expand in France and to do it we must respect and strengthen the foundations

Nice sentiments but it's hard to enjoy the band when the ship is sinking.

I won't stop outlining what I think is wrong in this country with the sport that I love and I won't accept that this makes me less of a fan of the sport.

and there's the rub.... we are at the opposite ends of this debate. I am very much pro p&r, you aren't.

I've been called all manner of things in my stance against the direction our sport is going whilst (some) people at your end of the spectrum have levelled accusations at folk like me of holding the game back with my constant negativity towards the game because of doing just what you have done above... posting what you believe.

I'm overjoyed p&r is being considered again and it would now appear that all the negativity is now coming from the other direction.

Will it ever die down?? I dunno. I wished it would but I'm not holding my breath.